I am a charting rebel

As of today, I am 100% temp free. Considering what an vocal advocate I've been of charting, I wouldn't be surprised if this came as quite a shock!

When I started this cycle, I decided that I wouldn't temp the second week of the 2-week wait. It's just too stressful. I'm still going to chart my CM and potential symptoms - if I feel like it - but no temps. During my last cycle, temping stressed me out enough (is it up? is it down? is that a good/bad sign?) that I would wake up multiple times before it was time to take my temperature, which would then make my temp wonky due to lack of sleep, stressing me out further and making me even more anxious to get the temp right the next morning, and then I'd wake up multiple times because of that, and so on and so forth.

And that's why I decided: it doesn't matter. I'm still all for temping for the majority of a cycle in order to pin down your ovulation date and confirm afterward with a series of high temps, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who is just starting TTC or has irregular cycles. But the final week? Not so critical. By this point, I'm either going to be pregnant or I'm not. No amount of temping will change that, and stressing over it that much can't be healthy.

Still, this was a surprisingly difficult decision to actually act on. I'm a type A, anal retentive, hypereducated control freak. A Bibliosaur dating profile would read something like:

LIKES
- order
- organization
- planning
- index cards

DISLIKES
- change
- uncertainty
- chaos
- DVD collections that aren't alphabetized (seriously, how do you people find things? can you tell why I work in a library?)

Oh Mr Dewey...how I love your decimal system

So the idea of relinquishing my temp monitoring was easy in theory but rather difficult once it was a reality. After taking this morning's final temp, I had to beat back second thoughts and quickly give my thermometer to Mr Bibliosaur to hide somewhere. I stayed in bed with a pillow firmly over my head and humming to myself so I couldn't tell where he put it; if I knew where it was, I could see that I might crack and start using it again in the last few days of this cycle, leading to the whole messy, sleepless situation yet again.

So take a good look, because these are the last temps of mine you'll see until the beginning of my next cycle (or a BFP!):

For the most part, this decision has made me feel very relieved and free, but there's still a teensy bit that's desperately wanting to ransack the house until I find that thermometer. Wish me luck - and self control!